Chartres (interior)

The three doorways of Chartres’s west end open onto this view of the nave. Chartres illustrates all the elements of a Gothic church: a multistory elevation made to seem even higher by pointed arches; a ribbed, pointed-arch vault; and (taking the place of walls) large lancet windows filled with stained glass. The vault was supported not by walls but by flying buttresses on the church’s exterior. (Paul M. Maeyaer / akg-images.)